13 The Green Book carried tourist information for New York City
Since it was born in New York City and its nearby environs, it was little surprise that the section which covered New York was the most extensive of the book for many years. Augmented with photographs and maps, the Green Book listed dozens of establishments within the city which catered to Black customers, including stores and shops of all kinds, garages, service stations, taxi companies, dance halls, pool rooms, theaters, and the usual lists of taverns, restaurants, lunch counters, hotels, boarding houses, and tourist houses. Most of the hotels listed for New York City were in Harlem, and as with other locations the YMCA and YWCA were included.
The Green Book (1948) also included a Points of Interest section for New York City, describing both the sites and the manner of transportation to reach them. Coney Island was described as “perhaps the most popular playground in the world”. The Statue of Liberty was recommended to the attention of visitors and several museums described, including the Museum of the Numismatic Society. The Bronx Zoo was described as having the “greatest collection of animals in the world”. A tour of Greenwich Village was recommended, though many of its establishments were segregated, and a copy of the Green Book was needed to ensure that one entered an establishment where welcomed, rather than not.